Tag Archives: Bowdoin College

Bowdoin Punishes Professor who provoked

Inside Higher Ed: Bowdoin Punishes Professor who provoked

The president of Bowdoin College has endorsed a faculty committee’s finding that an economist engaged in misconduct in research — research that he continues to maintain the college examined only because it made Bowdoin look bad.

The complicated and contested history of Jonathan P. Goldstein’s dispute with Bowdoin was examined in an article on Inside Higher Ed two weeks ago. The gist of it is that Goldstein wrote a scholarly article that, he said, showed that Bowdoin overemphasized athletics; ran afoul of the college’s dean and other administrators when he sought to distribute it to parents and prospective students (interrupting college tours and intimidating a student employee, Bowdoin officials charged); and became the subject of a series of accusations and campus investigations.

CU is to Ward Churchill what Bowdoin is to Jonathan Goldstein?

Inside Higher Ed: Ward Churchill Redux?

The professor writes something that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. That prompts administrators to look closely at his research methods, and they find errors that lead them to discipline him. No, not that case, where the issues and punishments at stake are admittedly more dramatic. This one is unfolding at Bowdoin College, and like many such situations, it evokes “Rashomon” in the conflicting versions of events recounted by the two sides. (Having some video of the events at issue would help, as will become clear.)

One of the few facts on which both parties agree is that Bowdoin is poised to punish a longtime professor of economics, Jonathan Goldstein, based on an investigative committee’s findings that he engaged in research misconduct (failing to cite sources) and used confidential data in the draft of a paper on his Web site last fall about the relative emphasis on intercollegiate athletics at Bowdoin and 35 other liberal arts colleges. The two sides also agree that the primary bone of contention in the situation is that Goldstein sought to distribute the paper to high school students and families visiting Bowdoin’s admissions office last fall.